5.23.2012

trains, buses and pacemakers

I'm gonna start off this post with some good news (for a change). Pablo had his annual MRI recently. He was very nervous for a couple reasons. The first reason is that he's been feeling like crap the last few months. The second reason is that while he was having the MRI done, the technician asked Pablo when his next brain surgery was. This freaked Pablo out a bit because he assumed that she saw something and hence her asking the question. (I think for every scan Pablo has had done, a technician has made some sort of comment to scare him). Anyway, our family doctor finally got the results (it took about a week) and the MRI came back clear! YAY!

With that being done, I'll move onto explaining the title of this post.

Today, Pablo had to go to Toronto for an external bladder pacemaker (reminder: his brain tumour caused severe bladder issues). To get to Toronto, we were able to get him train tickets due to a 50% off seat sale. Then we found out a few days ago that there was going to be a strike affecting train service. The train was perfect because Pablo was coming home right after the procedure and the train was going to enable him to move around/lay down/stand for the uncomfortable ride home. Hearing about the strike worried us because if he couldn't take the train, I was going to have to drive Pablo to Toronto (about a 5 hr car ride) and drive home right after his appointment. And since Pablo doesn't have his license due to seizures, I would have to do all the driving myself. Yuck. After numerous phone calls to the train station, we figured out that Pablo would have to take a bus to Brockville then a train from Brockville to Toronto. Better than me driving and more comfortable for Pablo.

This morning, Pablo got to the train station bright and early and turns out, there were a bunch of news crews there to interview passengers about how this strike was affecting them. Well it damn well was negatively affecting Pablo who was worried that due to the bus being a bit slower than a train, he might not make his appointment on time. He told the news crews this and they were very interested to hear his story. Within no time, everyone in the station knew Pablo's story. In fact, CBC news wants to do a full story on Pablo's medical history. I hope they have alot of time for the interview because it is going to take a long time to go from start to finish!

There was a bit of a wait in Brockville and Pablo was worried that he wouldn't make his 1:30 pm appointment. He called the hospital and they told him that if he got there any later than 2:30, they wouldn't be able to take him at all. Yeah, really. Shocker. Thankfully, Pablo got to the hospital with minutes to spare and they 'installed' the pacemaker. Pablo is uncomfortable, in pain ("it hurt so fucking bad") and finds the whole procedure strange in that he can feel the electric currents. He is not allowed to bend over, lift anything, bathe, etc. for a week while he has this thing on. Pablo is on the train home and should get here around 10 pm tonight.

Next Wednesday, he has to go back to Toronto (this will be the third trip for this issue) where they will remove the pacemaker, do xrays, etc. This means an overnight trip again (like the first trip) as he has to be at the hospital first thing in the morning. This also means I have to take some more time off work. Luckily, due to the pain in the ass bus/train trip today, Pablo gets 50% off his next train trip, which helps because the train is not cheap.

The date of the final internal bladder pacemaker surgery it still TBD (sometime near the end of the summer supposedly). Pablo just told me that surgery will probably be mid-June.

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About me

I'm Julia, writer of this here blog and mother to 'the boo' (10 year old Isabella) and 'the boy' (8 year old Simon). I blog about a variety of stuff: my family, my husband Pablo's battle with a brain tumour, fashion and kids' rooms. I'd love to see your kids' rooms so email me!